The Sneaker Savant

This is probably the last post I’ll make on the Kobe topic for a little while... The last thing I’ll touch on is Nike’s position...obviously...Nike hasn’t released an ‘official’ position, but I’ll tell you what I heard from my source at Nike because I think it’s super interesting (and a bit painful to hear).

First off, I was actually right - Nike was planning on releasing A SHITLOAD of Kobe’s. I was technically incorrect because nothing had released yet, but they had SEVERAL pairs of Kobe retros in production (10+) in full family sizes slated on their internal release schedule to begin hitting in SPRING 2021. I heard a number of fan favorite protros (and my personal favorites) were to be released, so I’m actually quite bummed to hear about this.

I get into arguments with people all the time about this - but what my Nike sources tell me and what I’ve come to understand is that the majority of Nike releases take about 18 months production time - that’s from idea to delivery. And I believe it. Kobe passed away in January 2020, and here we are 16 months later...we were on the CUSP of the first release. Most of the pairs created have probably already been put in the regrind (recycle) pile. Ugh.

Looking forward - he told me that the line will probably live on...and I bet @sneakerlawfirm can confirm the legalities of this. I believe Nike has the patent on the shoe design, but the Kobe name and logo are owned by both. So the shoe will probably be created but the Kobe logo and signature will have to be removed and they’ll probably be named slightly different...Lastly, he told me that Nike will be putting effort behind a few other athletes to carry the line.

I dunno...the whole Kobe saga is a jumbled mix of emotions at the end of the day. As a fan, I hope we get to connect with some of these models on a non-bullshit basis, but also know it’s business and it doesn’t always work out in the customers favor. Anyways...is any of this news to you?